Drizzt
Member
NRA board member chooses guns over love
By Rob Jennings, Daily Record
ROCKAWAY TWP. - In the 1990s, Scott L. Bach was becoming more and more active in the National Rifle Association. His girlfriend, a gun control supporter, was not thrilled.
So Bach, an attorney, faced a choice - "love or freedom," the 40-year-old attorney recalled on Friday.
Bach said he picked the latter and stepped up his Second Amendment advocacy. The girlfriend promptly took a hike, but Bach was rewarded last spring by being elected to the NRA's board of directors.
Bach's rise within the Reston, Va.-based NRA, which opposes gun control legislation, was unlikely on several fronts. Of 76 NRA directors, Bach is the only one from northern New Jersey.
"I live and work in two of the most liberal, anti-gun states," said Bach, who has a law practice in his native New York City.
Bach was a relative latecomer to the NRA cause. He said he was elected student government president at Queens College, a bastion of liberal academics. Bach interned in the New York State Senate with Gary Ackerman, who later was elected to Congress and supported gun control legislation.
"I wasn't necessarily conservative at that point," Bach said of his college days. "I grew up believing everything I heard about the NRA - that these are a bunch of redneck extremists."
An incident in the township about 10 years ago started his political evolution. Bach said that he and another girlfriend were hiking when an inebriated motorist nearly ran them over, then got out of his car and made verbal threats.
Bach filed a report with township police, but the motorist was never found. Bach claimed that an officer advised him to consider buying a gun for personal protection.
"I would be hard-pressed to believe one of our officers would give that kind of advice," Rockaway Township Police Lt. Steve Skrinak said in response.
"New Jersey has probably the most stringent gun-control laws in the nation."
But Bach said individuals are obligated to protect themselves if necessary.
"The police have no legal obligation to come to the aid of any particular citizen," Bach said.
Sometime after the hiking incident, Bach said he joined a shooting range where NRA membership was a requirement. He began traveling and meeting more of the NRA's 4 million members.
Bach said he was leery at first, then increasingly impressed with the group's absolutist defense of the Second Amendment right to bear arms.
Bach stepped up his advocacy. He volunteered as a lawyer on Second Amendment issues and wrote articles, citing studies - disputed by gun-control advocates - that guns in the home reduce crime.
Eric Howard, a spokesman for Sarah Brady's gun-control group in Washington, countered that the NRA's rhetoric is based on false premises. Howard said more guns do not equal less crime.
"Jim Brady, President Reagan and a police officer were surrounded by the best-trained men in the world, (who) all had guns on them, yet they were all shot by one man," Howard said, referring to the 1981 assassination attempt by John Hinckley Jr.
As Bach's NRA advocacy increased, his new girlfriend took note - and was not impressed.
"I was in love with a woman who had zero tolerance or interest in freedom, firearms and the Second Amendment," Bach said.
Upon his NRA election in April, Bach joined a director's list that includes noteworthy conservatives such as Oliver North, former U.S. Rep. Bob Barr, a Republican from Georgia, and "Dallas" actress Susan Howard. The directors help set the advocacy organization's policy and goals.
"I'm not going to sit on the sidelines anymore," Bach said.
http://www.dailyrecord.com/news/articles/news4-bach.htm
By Rob Jennings, Daily Record
ROCKAWAY TWP. - In the 1990s, Scott L. Bach was becoming more and more active in the National Rifle Association. His girlfriend, a gun control supporter, was not thrilled.
So Bach, an attorney, faced a choice - "love or freedom," the 40-year-old attorney recalled on Friday.
Bach said he picked the latter and stepped up his Second Amendment advocacy. The girlfriend promptly took a hike, but Bach was rewarded last spring by being elected to the NRA's board of directors.
Bach's rise within the Reston, Va.-based NRA, which opposes gun control legislation, was unlikely on several fronts. Of 76 NRA directors, Bach is the only one from northern New Jersey.
"I live and work in two of the most liberal, anti-gun states," said Bach, who has a law practice in his native New York City.
Bach was a relative latecomer to the NRA cause. He said he was elected student government president at Queens College, a bastion of liberal academics. Bach interned in the New York State Senate with Gary Ackerman, who later was elected to Congress and supported gun control legislation.
"I wasn't necessarily conservative at that point," Bach said of his college days. "I grew up believing everything I heard about the NRA - that these are a bunch of redneck extremists."
An incident in the township about 10 years ago started his political evolution. Bach said that he and another girlfriend were hiking when an inebriated motorist nearly ran them over, then got out of his car and made verbal threats.
Bach filed a report with township police, but the motorist was never found. Bach claimed that an officer advised him to consider buying a gun for personal protection.
"I would be hard-pressed to believe one of our officers would give that kind of advice," Rockaway Township Police Lt. Steve Skrinak said in response.
"New Jersey has probably the most stringent gun-control laws in the nation."
But Bach said individuals are obligated to protect themselves if necessary.
"The police have no legal obligation to come to the aid of any particular citizen," Bach said.
Sometime after the hiking incident, Bach said he joined a shooting range where NRA membership was a requirement. He began traveling and meeting more of the NRA's 4 million members.
Bach said he was leery at first, then increasingly impressed with the group's absolutist defense of the Second Amendment right to bear arms.
Bach stepped up his advocacy. He volunteered as a lawyer on Second Amendment issues and wrote articles, citing studies - disputed by gun-control advocates - that guns in the home reduce crime.
Eric Howard, a spokesman for Sarah Brady's gun-control group in Washington, countered that the NRA's rhetoric is based on false premises. Howard said more guns do not equal less crime.
"Jim Brady, President Reagan and a police officer were surrounded by the best-trained men in the world, (who) all had guns on them, yet they were all shot by one man," Howard said, referring to the 1981 assassination attempt by John Hinckley Jr.
As Bach's NRA advocacy increased, his new girlfriend took note - and was not impressed.
"I was in love with a woman who had zero tolerance or interest in freedom, firearms and the Second Amendment," Bach said.
Upon his NRA election in April, Bach joined a director's list that includes noteworthy conservatives such as Oliver North, former U.S. Rep. Bob Barr, a Republican from Georgia, and "Dallas" actress Susan Howard. The directors help set the advocacy organization's policy and goals.
"I'm not going to sit on the sidelines anymore," Bach said.
http://www.dailyrecord.com/news/articles/news4-bach.htm
